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So you're deep into a late-night binge-watching session, and you want to finish off another episode or two. But there's a problem: You don't want to keep the rest of the household or your neighbors awake with the blare of the television set.
Either you have to risk annoying other people, or you have to turn the volume down so low that you can't hear what the characters onscreen are saying. It's a dilemma—but there are solutions.
One solution, though not the one we're focusing on here, is to switch on subtitles for whatever you're watching. The option to enable subtitles is fairly easy to find across most streaming services and TVs, and it means you can keep up with what's happening no matter how low the volume gets.
Another fix is to connect a pair of wireless headphones to your TV. This is a connection we're all used to making on phones, tablets, and laptops, but not so much for televisions. But it works in just the same way.
Personal Audio
Any pair of wireless headphones that support Bluetooth will do the job. We've collected a few top picks if you need some buying advice. Key features to look out for are battery life (how long the headphones are going to last between charges) and support for TV audio tech such as surround sound (for a more immersive listening experience).
Larger headphones will obviously have bigger batteries, but in terms of piping audio wirelessly, both over-ear cans and in-ear buds will work equally well for this job. You might need to think about sounds leaking out around your ears if, for example, you're lying next to someone in bed. If that’s the case, a headset that offers better isolation—earbuds with a tight seal inside the ear canal, or over-ears with a fully closed ear. cup design—is best.
The latest Bluetooth standards will give you around 30 feet (a little over 9 meters) of range, so you should be OK to stream your audio from your TV to your couch no matter the size of the room you're listening in. You might even be able to go get a snack and keep listening, depending on where the kitchen is. If your headphones do lose the connection with the TV, then they should reconnect automatically after a moment or two once you wander back into range.
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From the TV side, most modern televisions now support Bluetooth, though it's missing on a minority of budget sets. If your current model doesn't offer Bluetooth connectivity, one option is to add a soundbar or speaker set that does. You're then just transferring the audio wirelessly from the speakers rather than the TV.
Once you've connected your headphones to your television, all the sounds coming from the TV set—including beeps and whistles from the menu, as well as the audio from movies and shows—will come through the headphones rather than the built-in TV sound system. You won't get sounds playing through both places at the same time.
Get Connected
Every TV and pair of headphones will work slightly differently, but the process of getting connected will be broadly similar no matter what hardware devices you're using. You'll need to find the Bluetooth connection option somewhere in your television's settings first, and then put your headphones into pairing mode so they can be discovered by the TV.
If you're stuck about how to do either, a quick look at the documentation that came with your devices—or a search of online forums—should help you out. Your TV will be able to switch between different audio outputs, through the menus or via the remote (or both), so you can switch between headphones and the TV’s speakers.
On TVs running the latest Google TV software, for example, you can select the gear icon in the top right of the main menu screen, then Bluetooth and Pair remote or accessory—then just follow the instructions on the screen. Many headphones, meanwhile, will come with a dedicated Bluetooth button that you can press and hold to put them in the necessary pairing mode.
If you've got a streaming box or dongle connected to your TV, you'll usually be able to connect this to a pair of headphones as well as (or instead of) your television. For example, on the Apple TV 4K box, open up the Settings app then choose Remotes and Devices and Bluetooth to start searching for nearby headphones.
Sometimes you'll get extra options if you've bought a lot of devices from the same manufacturer. Take the recently launched Sonos Arc headphones: They have a feature called TV Audio Swap that lets you switch between listening to a television program on headphones and listening through the Sonos Arc soundbar at the touch of a button.
